Seats on some boats are convertible between a seat arranged, or configured, for seating, with an upright seat back, which can be moved into a horizontal position for standing on the surface of the seat back, allowing someone to fish from the surface, or to be used as a lounging area. Generally such seats have a manual hinged arrangement for raising the seat back and locking it into an upright position with a mechanical locking mechanism, and for releasing the mechanical locking mechanism and allowing the seat back to be lowered into a horizontal position. Further, such seats typically have cushioned surfaces in the form of cushions that can be snapped on both the seat back and the horizontally extending seat bottom such that when it becomes desirable to go fishing, the seat back cushion and seat cushion merely need to be unsnapped and removed to provide a solid standing surface, or if not used for fishing can remain in place to form a lounge.
The problem with these mechanical arrangements is that a boating environment is often unstable, with the boat rocking due to wave action. In such a case it may become difficult to easily transform the seat from an upright seat back configuration to a horizontal configuration, or vice versa. Oftentimes converting the seat back from one position to the other can be clumsy even to the point of risking injury from the moving parts, especially in the dynamic environment of unpredictable movement experienced on a boat.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the problems associated with the prior art seat arrangements, in particular seat arrangements for boats, are overcome.